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SC allows Italian marine accused of killing Indian fishermen to return home

by IBNS 25 May 2016, 07:53 pm

New Delhi, May 26 (IBNS) The Supreme Court on Thursday allowed an Italian marine arrested for murder in India to return home after four years of detention.

The court order came after Salvatore Girone's request to leave India was supported by the government on "humanitarian grounds".

Girone is one of the two Italian sailors charged with shooting down two Indian fishermen in 2012. Italy says that the marines, guarding an oil tanker, mistook the fishermen for pirates. 

Massimiliano Latorre, the another accused, was allowed last year to go home  for medical treatment and stay in Italy till the end of September. 

The question of jurisdiction over the case led to a tussle between Italy and India with Rome seeking the UN court's intervention since the marines were serving on a UN-backed anti-piracy mission.

A UN arbitration court ruled in April that India should release  Girone, who remained detained  at the Italian embassy in Delhi.

The Supreme Court last year suspended all legal proceedings against the two Italian marines following the orders of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS).